In a quiet exhibition room at the House of Roosevelt, a landmark building on the Shanghai’s Bund, visitors gathered not around wine bottles, but documents: handwritten letters, shipping invoices, customs slips, and early wine advertisements. Some were over 300 years old. Others came from as recently as the1970’s. All had one thing in common—they were about wine but not wine itself.
The exhibition, titled From Boulevard Saint-Germain to Huailai, is China’s first to focus on historical wine documents—what its curator and collector Richard Li calls “wine artefacts.” There are no tastings, no labels on display. Instead, the show offers a look at the world that wine once moved through: trade, agriculture, correspondence, and marketing.
From 16th-century sommeliers’ tastevins to hand-drawn postcards from grand châteaux, each item whispers a story. “These documents open a door to forgotten stories,” says Li, All the pieces on display have been painstakingly collected over 18 years by Richard Li, CEO of Domaine Franco-Chinois and its sister winery, Canaan Winery.
Tim Tse, founder of the House of Roosevelt and President of Roosevelt China Investments Corp, has known Li for more than a decade. He sees this exhibition more than just as a tribute to wine culture. “Richard is both an intellectual and a wine connoisseur,” Tse remarks. “It’s incredibly generous of him to share these artefacts with the public.”
“Indeed, this is The House of Roosevelt very first wine artefacts exhibition,” remarked Tse. “Roosevelt has been a wine destination for wine enthusiasts and wineries for years. Many people know the price of the wine but don’t fully appreciate the value of the wine. Richard’s collections provide a different dimension of wine culture to Roosevelt’s guests.”
A Journey That Began in Paris
Li’s path to becoming a collector didn’t start in a grand auction or museum but in a dusty Parisian bookstore on Boulevard Saint-Germain. “In 2007, I stumbled into a second-hand bookshop and found some old wine documents—a book on winemaking, some letters, the scent of old ink and paper,” he recalls. “It was like opening a door to forgotten tales.”
Since then, his life has been one long conversation with the past. “I began collecting fragments of time,” he says. “Seasons that once flowed as wine now rest on paper. Each piece has a story. Each story takes us back to a vintage long gone.”
The exhibition title—From Boulevard Saint-Germain to Huailai—symbolises both origin and destination. “These shops are rare gems,” Li says fondly. “Places where you can lose half a day talking with the owner, digging through piles of old prints. The smell of faded ink and brittle paper is intoxicating in its own way.”
He lifts two documents from the collection with the care of someone handling ancient scrolls. One is a 1927 delivery note from a Bordeaux négociant for bottles of Château Lafite Rothschild. “To my delight, I spoke with the current head of the merchant house and learned more about their history and their dedication to the legacy of Bordeaux’s fine wines,” he says.
Other items include a Chinese postcards from a 1960s wine fair in Wuhan, (which was found in a corner with piles of other old papers in a shop of Boulevard Saint Germain), a poster from a 1928 French wine industry rally against excessive additives and fake wine, and Les Vin des Bordeaux, an 1868 book exploring vineyard soils—each as layered and complex as the wines they reference. Even empty wine bottles, if connected to a memory, find their place in Li’s archive.
One of the most whimsical pieces is a wine list signed by Hong Kong actress Maggie Cheung. “We met on a flight and started talking about wine,” Li wrote in the show’s preface. “I recommended a Pouilly-Fuissé, and later she signed the menu with her autograph. It’s the ‘latest’ item in my collection.”
Passion Carved by Time
Wine, for Li, is no longer just a drink. It is metaphor, vocation, philosophy. His collection is a mirror of his life’s journey.
His professional track record tells the same story. Li entered the wine trade in 2002, rising through ranks at China’s largest fine wine importer ASC Fine Wines and later Domaine Franco-Chinois in Huailai, Hebei. Over the past 20 years, wine in China has seen its cycle of boom and bust. Since mid-2018, wine imports have declined steadily, and many who once professed their love for wine have quietly exited. In today’s China, it’s rare to find someone with 20+ years in wine—and rarer still someone like Li.
Coincidentally, the two companies Li has worked for also embody this rare longevity. ASC Fine Wines, founded in 1996, is now in its 29th year, and its founder, Don St. Pierre Jr., reacquired the company earlier this year. Domaine Franco-Chinois, meanwhile, celebrated its 25th anniversary last year – the same year Canaan Winery was ranked among the world’s top 100 vineyards, and notably, the only one from China.
DFC
The origins of Domaine Franco-Chinois date back to a diplomatic vision between China and France in the 1990s. In 1999, a joint demonstration vineyard was established in Huailai, Hebei. By 2005, the winery was named Domaine Franco-Chinois and became a model of Sino-French agricultural cooperation.
It was the first winery in China to plant Marselan in 2001, a varietal now considered the country’s rising star. That pioneering spirit continues to yield results. At the recent Wynn Signature China Wine Awards, its 2012 Marselan Reserve scored 98 points, winning “Best Marselan” and “Best Wine from North China”. The 2019 Cabernet Reserve was selected as the awards banquet wine. And at the 2025 Bettane+Desseauve awards in Chengdu, the 2017 Marselan won “Marselan of the Year.”
Wine professionals often say, “Wine is like a friend with stories to tell.” Unlike industrial spirits, each vintage bears its own mood, its own fingerprint. It’s not meant for fast consumption—it’s meant for long conversations.
Perhaps it’s this nuance, this character, that brought Li, ASC, and Domaine Franco-Chinois together. They all believe in time. In persistence. And in the power of stories.
From Boulevard Saint-Germain to Huailai will run at the House of Roosevelt for one month before travelling to Domaine Franco-Chinois, where the conversation between ink and wine will continue. This is not an exhibition that will leave you tipsy—but you may walk away utterly intoxicated.
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